Thursday, July 21, 2011

What is the Ballistic Kettlebell Swing?

The kettlebell swing is the foundational ballistic exercise of Kettlebell Therapy. It is a full body integrated exercise which addresses power, endurance, cardio, core, dynamic balance, postural correction, movement correction, and more.

A ballistic exercise (or classically, “power training”) is performed when a person lifts, accelerates, resists, and finally releases a weight in comparison to classic weight training or gym machines where a weight is slowly raised and lowered.

Kettlebell ballistic exercises are performed by a circular motion where the force of resistance is centrifugal, rather than linear. Instead of simply lifting or curling the kettlebell, the kettlebell (“kb” or, “bell”) is swung between one’s legs, to the side, diagonally, or around a person’s body. This circular force applies a powerful angular momentum around linear joints. This is quite different from classical weight lifting and gym machines where a mere linear force is applied to stress a linear body.

The result is an effective and powerful full body integration which spares our joints by using angular forces (swings), rather than linear forces (gym machines/weight lifting) performed in isolation. The outcomes are strong, lean muscle rather than bulky muscle and stressed-out joints.